photo by Victoria Pickering
“Dear PoPville,
Since President Trump federalized the DC police and brought in other law enforcement agencies, he has been hoping for screen-grabbing protests to justify his decision. Residents need to ignore the bait.
Donald J. Trump is a champion of distraction. He cannot stomach bad headlines. So when events are not swinging in his direction, he seeks to change the narrative and blame something else. Epstein files? Claim a criminal conspiracy by Barack Obama. Job numbers not good? The reporting bureau is corrupt and full of leftists.
The decision to federalize Washington D.C.’s police may be just one more choice ‘don’t look here, look over there’, or it may be a vengeful response to one of his DOGE employees being victim of an attempted car jacking in one of the city’s safest neighborhoods. Whatever the reason, Trump’s decision to put additional federal officers on the streets of D.C. stands in the face of all evidence that D.C is the safest it has been for years. The decision was controversial but, as hoped by the White House, it consumed national attention.
President Trump would now like nothing more than images of violent protests to justify his bravery in saving a lawless and corrupt city.
Yet all he currently has is a pink-poloed bureaucrat hurling a footlong at someone from CBP. And look at how the administration milked it. Newly-minted U.S Attorney for D.C., and Trump sycophant, Judge Jeanine could not have been more elated to film herself praising law enforcement and threatening to throw felony charges at such an abhorrent sandwich tosser.
photo by Fritz Myer
But imagine if the images were worse. Imagine if thousands of masked protesters were filmed hurling molotov cocktails at lines of national guard troops. Imagine nationwide coverage of tear gas and vandalized cars and smashed-up store fronts. Fox News and NewsMax would run 24 hour footage of D.C. as if it were a war zone and family members would call to ask if you’re safe and if it’s truly as dangerous as it looks on TV. D.C. residents cannot give the Trump administration this win.
The federal agents assigned to be here did not choose this. They may be bored, they may be a little over zealous with tickets as they ask themselves why they were told to guard such dangerous territory as 14 street NW (for those outside of D.C., this is one of the hippest, most gentrified neighborhoods in the city; so safe that middle-aged white men feel comfortable walking around inebriated on a Sunday night in pastels and New Balance). But in response, D.C. residents need to show patience and play the long game. The troops and officers are victims too, just of a different variety; pawns in the President’s media maneuvering. The best thing D.C. can do is not take the bait. Continue about our days as normal and show the rest of the country that Trump doesn’t know what’s he doing and is wasting their tax dollars. Expose the political stunt for what it is. Don’t make officers of different ilk — FBI, CBP, national guard — think they have a job to do but instead, help them see that they’re time is being wasted.
D.C. is a beautiful city, one of America’s best. Let’s show the country that and in the meantime, keep the headlines and attention on Trump and Epstein and all the myriad ways that he is failing this great country.”